SKINNER #3 ( I want… ) from jae song on Vimeo.
An exceptionally cool film installation by Jae Song. Two sixteen-millimeter projectors talk to each other.
Monthly Archives: June 2012
D-DAY
Omaha Beach, first wave, photograph by Robert Capa.
AN LP COVER FOR TODAY
He came to bartend — he stayed to entertain!
Click on the image to enlarge.
COMMON SENSE
In the recall election in Wisconsin, Republicans outspent Democrats 7-1. Guess who won. A hundred years ago even Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, know that big money can buy elections. This is not rocket science, folks — its simple common sense about basic human nature. That’s why TR helped pass the law limiting contributions by corporations to Federal elections — a law recently struck down by The Supreme Court in its Citizens United ruling.
Voters can be bought, and that’s never going to change. You have to go after the people who try to buy them. You have to criminalize their actions, as TR did. If buying elections is not a crime in a democracy, then the idea of democracy has no meaning at all.
PICK YOURSELF UP
Seven and a half minutes containing some of the most astonishing and erotic cinema ever created.
GO AWAY
It begins in Wisconsin — the hostile takeover of American democracy by large corporations. The fight to take it back is going to last for generations. Every politician holding national office who failed to show up in Wisconsin to support the recall movement needs to go — now — starting with Barack Obama. It’s time to clear the decks for action — make room for public servants with conviction and courage.
YOU ARE MY LUCKY STAR
After his revolutionary work in the 1920s, Louis Armstrong settled into a groove that was in some respects less electrifying. From 1935 to 1946 he fronted a big band, which recorded for Decca. The musicians were not always first-rate, the arrangements were occasionally third-rate and the choice of material was sometimes questionable.
But Armstrong’s genius sailed along as though he didn’t notice these things — he created brilliant work almost every time he stepped to the fore. “You Are My Lucky Star”, by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, is from the first of his band’s recording dates for Decca, on 3 October 1935 in New York City.
Armstrong’s instrumental and vocal interpretation of the charming song is simply sublime.
BENNY AND THE DUKE
. . . dig Ella in New York City, 1948. Photograph by Herman Leonard.
Click on the image to enlarge.
LLOYD’S MODERN LIFE: SHE STILL LOVES YOU
Yeah Yeah Yeah
FRITZ LANG
A frame from Metropolis above (click on the image to enlarge), and Spione below.
William Ahearn offers a useful, comprehensive film by film survey of Lang’s German work here — Meditations On Fritz Lang.
LLOYD’S MODERN LIFE: SILENT VOICES
. . . speak.
ECHOES OF NEW ORLEANS: ABSINTHE
Not long ago I had my first glass of absinthe — courtesy of my New Orleans friends Adrienne and Bill, who sent me home with a bottle. I did not exhibit any signs of personality disorder or incipient insanity. After robbing the convenience store I returned home and slept like a baby.
LLOYD’S MODERN LIFE: INSTRUCTIONAL DANCE VIDEO
You, too, can learn to dance like this!
A NORMAN ROCKWELL FOR TODAY
Click on the image to enlarge.
LLOYD’S MODERN LIFE: VIVA LAS VEGAS
Bright light city . . .